


How R Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (Making) the Bomb

by soufflegirl91



Series: 007 Fest Creations [17]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: 007 Fest 2019, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-22 20:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19999048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soufflegirl91/pseuds/soufflegirl91
Summary: She might be a technological expert, but R needs more convincing to branch out into explosives.





	How R Learned to Stop Worrying and Love (Making) the Bomb

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted to Tumblr

R knew that it was perfectly normal to have second (and third) thoughts about making bombs. No sane person would consider it. A fair number of slightly-less-than-sane people did, certainly, but over at MI5 it had been her job to stop those people. Not to join them.

MI6 apparently had other ideas.

Oh, she still did her fair share of “hunt the bomb and stop it before it can kill everyone” – R and Q had a system, had perfected working together while still at uni and had perfected bomb-hunting at MI5 (before Q had defected to GCHQ, the bugger. Still, R couldn’t complain. Q’s defection had given her his job, and then this promotion to MI6). Between them, they had the highest success rate since the Good Friday Agreement had been signed. Coming into MI5 in the wake of 7/7 had been motivation enough for them to revolutionize bomb detection and defusing.

Joining Q Branch had been a bit of a change of pace. Suddenly, as well as finding new ways to stop bombs, she was expected to build them, too. Q had seemingly taken to weapons development like a duck to water (which explained a lot, actually. That one time he’d started a fire in the tech lab during second year made a lot of sense, in retrospect). R took a bit more convincing.

“Surely our efforts are better concentrated on technological and field support? That way, we reduce the need for explosives in the first place.”

A few missions supporting the double oh divisions made her realise how wrong she was. Some way, somehow, things always exploded. Building the explosives in Q Branch just meant they had more control over the level of destruction.

With this newfound knowledge, R taught herself to become an explosives expert. Working closely with Q and the more incendiary-minded technicians, she found new ways of hiding powerful ordnance in the most innocuous objects. Teaching 006 that he no longer needed to make a bomb out of anything he had to hand when he had a perfectly good exploding toothbrush – a toothbrush that would only blow up what needed to be destroyed - was slightly more difficult.

Q had to have a quiet word after the time that R had stayed up all night watching Doctor Who and thought that micro-explosives to be dropped in people’s drinks were a good idea. 001 did not need anymore help with her River Song cosplay, the earring explosive dampeners really weren’t necessary.

MI6 as a rule stayed a way from chemical warfare, but Q and R were of the opinion that sometimes it was better to be prepared. They worked together on a project that only the two of them knew about, creating a new type of chemical bomb. Knowing the risk of civilian casualties, they made something that would only work within a very small area, a gas which would dissipate and become inert almost instantaneously. Almost. After just long enough to affect the target but nobody else. It was genius, even if they did say so themselves.

Bond’s exploding watch was her pride and joy. 8 months of work on the side as a pet project had created the perfect bomb. It would get through any scanner, and because a watch was a normal mission accessory, there wasn’t the risk of agents forgetting it in their hotel room (looking at you, 005). Whilst R did take a moment to mourn the loss of her baby boomer, she accepted that it had served its purpose perfectly. Her grief was helped along by the knowledge that she had 9 identical watches locked in one of the explosive labs. With 10 others in a more feminine style.


End file.
